Request PhD Defense Warrant

Please read the following information before completing the PhD defense warrant request form. This should be done at least 3 weeks prior to your dissertation defense. All of the required fields must be filled out.

  • Committee Requirements: You are required to have at least 4 committee members, including your advisor. Your committee is made up of at least four members. One is your research advisor. One will need to be outside of MET and one will need to be outside of your advisor’s home department (one person can satisfy both requirements). If you have a doctoral minor, one of the members of your committee will need to be from the minor’s department/program. This thesis committee member cannot also be your advisor. In addition, you must indicate whether each faculty member is a reader or nonreader. At least 3 committee members must be designated as readers. For more information, see the Graduate School Academic Policies & Procedures (AP&P) website.
  • Grades: Please check your grades prior to submission to ensure that there are no NR, P, or I grades as the Graduate School will not approve the warrant with these grades. If you have a NR, P, or I, contact the appropriate professor to have the grade(s) changed.
  • Changes: If anything changes with your defense, please email ezra.mauk@wisc.edu.
  • Room Booking: You and your advisor are responsible for securing a room for your dissertation defense.
  • Dissertation binding: MET can bind up to 4 printed copies of dissertations at no cost and have them sent to a location convenient to you. Please reach out to the program manager (ezra.mauk@wisc.edu) for more details.

Please have your advisor reach out to the graduate program manager to share whether your defense was successful as soon as possible. If so, the program manager will request signatures for your warrant through the Graduate Student Portal. Once the warrant is fully signed, the program manager will submit a warrant request to the Graduate School for final approval.